The Legend of Lucario
by NanoCarp
Summary: The story picks up at the end of "Pokémon: Lucario and the Mystery of Mew". Ash is experiencing some strange changes. Rating subject to change, currently K  for Minor Violence, TF story. Check my profile for the status of the next chapter ect. ATTENTION This version has been scrapped post-completion and is only up for archival purposes. See my profile for the new version. Thank You
1. The Beginning

Hello Everyone! This is my first and most likely only story I will ever write (At least willingly that is). I only ask that you guys review, and suggest for what should happen next in my story. Since I am not very creative I am handing control of the story to you. Well at least kind of. I'll tell you more about it after the chapter.

**Disclaimer: I do not in any way, shape or form own Pokémon, all characters, unless stated in the chapter of first appearance, are owned by Nintendo, ect. This disclaimer will NOT appear in any other chapters, but does apply to the entire story.**

Note: The events in this story take place after Pokémon: Lucario and the Mystery of Mew. You might consider watching it before reading this story, although this chapter will try to explain things just a bit. I'm also assuming that you know what the characters look like, at least until/if I decide to introduce a new one.

Now… on to the story.

**Chapter 1: The Beginning**

"Mew and the Tree of Beginning depend on each other for life," began Kidd Summers, the famous Pokémon explorer/researcher, "If The Tree doesn't survive this crisis… neither will Mew…"

Ash Ketchum, a teenage Pokémon trainer, was only mildly shocked at this statement, since Mew, a Legendary Pokémon that they were with at the time, had developed it's fever about the same time The Tree of Beginning had started acting up.

"Meew," the Legendary Pokémon managed to say as it pushed and struggled it's way out of Kidd's grip. "Mew mew mew!" it continued while pointing down a hallway as it floated up.

"I think it wants us to follow" said Ash.

"Pika!" agreed Pikachu. Pikachu has been Ash's faithful companion and his first pokémon since his first day… Well, almost, they had gotten off to a rough start, but now are the best friends that could ever exist in the whole world. Ash began running through the hallway, Kidd, and the other Legendary Pokémon with them, Lucario, all quickly following behind.

As they ran through the natural tunnel, the once teal crystals were all orange, and beginning to dissolve around the cave.

"Mew-ew… Mew" the pokémon gasped before starting to fall, but luckily Kidd was there to catch it before it could come to harm.

Ash and Pikachu both gasped in awe at what lay before them. They had entered a large room, in the center of which lay a giant crystal structure giving off a brilliant orange beam of light. The room appeared to be just underneath the root system of The Tree of Beginning, as roots were visible growing out from around the top of the room where the pillar of light was.

"_Huh?_" gasped Lucario, noticing what appeared to be Sir Aaron's gloves. Sir Aaron was Lucario's previous master, but upon leaving him, sealed Lucario in a staff, where he remained for years and years, until Ash released him, due to his Aura being so similar to Sir Aaron's. "_AH!_" he exclaimed as he ran over to the gloves, followed by Ash and Kidd. "_Could it be?_" he wondered telepathically as he knelt down to examine the gloves. "_These are his gloves but…_" He looked up at the crystal structure. "_Sir Aaron?_" he wondered as he noticed something odd in the crystals. Lucario began focusing his Aura on the crystal structure, causing it to glow blue, his back ears rising as they always do when he focuses his powers. The blue glow began to outline a shape in the crystal, and everyone gasped.

"_It is him!_" said Lucario, in awe.

"It is?" said Ash.

"I see" Kidd said. "After sealing Lucario in the staff, Sir Aaron came to this chamber. This place must be the heart of the Tree of Beginning. But why here?"

Ash began to wander over to the main crystal structure in the room. "Pika!" called Pikachu from Ash's shoulder, as he pointed to a strange flower that looked more like crystal you'd see hanging from a chandelier.

"The time flower…" said Ash as he bent down to touch it, triggering it's ability to show those around a glimpse of the past in it's location. A blue field expanded from the flower as the image began to show, replacing most of the surroundings with those of the past.

Sir Aaron appeared as the playback started. "Where are you? Mew?" He called. He looked up upon hearing a loud screeching noise, in time to see a large bird pokémon transforming into Mew. Of course all our heroes knew that the pokémon had been Mew from the start. The Mew of the past flew down to meet Sir Aaron. "Mew," He continued, "I realize that you and this tree are one. Please, take the power of my Aura and save the people!"

"Mew!" called the Legendary of the past in surprise, Lucario gasping at the same time.

"NOW! Accept the power of my Aura!" Shouted Sir Aaron, creating an orb of energy before him. "The power of Aura, will prevail!" He called out as he expanded the orb to encompass Mew. "AHHHHGH!" He called out, the energy of his Aura flowing from him to Mew.

The image dissipated and the time flower closed back up, leaving Lucario stunned.

"Pika!" called Pikachu as he jumped from Ash's shoulder, "Pika pika pika! Pi?" continued the pokémon as he ran to where Sir Aaron's image was just a few moments before.

"Sir Aaron sacrificed himself to save the kingdom and restore peace," Kidd began in awe. "He was a hero, just like the legend says…"

Lucario ran over to his master's resting place, "_Forgive me for doubting you, master_" he said telepathically, bowing his head in shame.

Suddenly the crystalline roots in the room began to dissolve.

"Meeew…" gasped the weakened pokémon as it rolled out of Kidd's hands and floated over to Lucario. "Mew, mew mew mew!" it said somewhat franticly.

"_What?_" responded Lucario, "_There's a way to save the tree, we can use the power of Aura?_"

Mew began nodding, as yet another root dissolved, causing Ash to gasp.

"_I'll help._"

"Hold on," interrupted Kidd, "If you use your aura to reverse the damage to the Tree, you'll end up in the same suspended state as Aaron!"

"_Yes, I know._" Lucario responded.

"Lucario…" Ash said, his voice a mix of sadness and respect.

"_The Aura is with me!_" called out Lucario as he began to transfer his power to Mew. Forming the same sphere of energy that Sir Aaron had. He broke off a few moments later, "_It's not working, I'm not strong enough._"

"You remember what you said about me before?" said Ash.

"_Ash!_" Lucario said as Ash retrieved Sir Aaron's gloves.

"You said my aura was like Sir Aaron's," Ash said putting the gloves on, "It's time to test if that's really true." He held out his hands and focused, as small orb of blue aura energy appearing faintly.

"Pika pi!" called Pikachu from the floor.

"No, it's too dangerous!" called Kidd, "You'll end up destroying yourself!"

"If I don't do this the Tree will die, and so will all the pokémon that live here!" Ash said as the orb grew larger.

"_Ash…_" said Lucario, in awe.

"I'M NOT GONNA GIVE UP!" yelled Ash.

Lucario then formed his own orb of energy, and both the orbs expanded and grew together.

"Pika!" cheered on Pikachu, as the Tree of Beginning dissolved at an alarming rate. Pushing even harder, Lucario and Ash both began to glow blue, as their energies flowed into Mew.

Noticing that Mew had noticeably recovered, Lucario knocked Ash away from the orb of energy. "_Leave the rest of this to me Ash_" He called.

"Lucario!" Ash called back.

"_The Aura, is WITH ME!_" he called out, giving one final push.

Mew then began to fly away and the orb dissipated. Mew flew up to the pillar of light, radiating energy. The light pillar suddenly became green, and all the crystal stopped dissolving. As well, all of the crystals across the land that were connected to the Tree of Beginning began shooting brilliant beams of green light with a hint of blue. The Tree of Beginning was saved!

-Elsewhere in the Tree of Beginning-

Jessie and James of Team Rocket found themselves sitting in a group of their pokémon, with an extremely bewildered look on both of their faces.

"Guess everything's back to normal…" said Jessie.

"That means we're back to being losers…" responded James.

"HEY!" cried Meowth as he ran down the cave tunnel and tackled them, all of them giggling.

-In yet another location in the Tree of Beginning-

Brock, Max and May, walked out of a cave in the Tree, gasping in awe at the scene of nature restored before them.

-The Heart of the Tree of Beginning-

Mew exited the beam of light, happily chattering as it flew around it's new friends.

"Thank you Mew." said Kidd.

"I see you're feeling better!" said Ash.

"Pika!" shouted Pikachu and Mew began giggling.

"You solved the mystery of the Tree of Beginning AND helped to save it!" came the voice of Lieutenant Banks over Kidd's headset, "The media's gonna eat this up Kidd!"

"Yeah, look Banks, I don't want this place to be ruined by tourism."

"But the publicity Kidd!"

"Let's keep this a secret."

"Alright, have it your way."

Kidd took off her visor and put it away when Lucario almost fell over and instead sat down.

"Lucario!" Ash called as they ran over to try and help.

"_There's nothing you can do for me, Ash…_" he responded.

"Are you sure?" asked Ash.

"Pika!" called the electric mouse pokémon.

Lucario put down his paw to help stabilize himself, and accidentally triggered another time flower. Once again the blue field expanded and encompassed the surroundings, and Sir Aaron once again appeared before the group, sitting down in the spot that happened to be right next to Lucario.

"Lucario…" Sir Aaron began, "Forgive me."

"_I do master_" thought Lucario for all to hear.

"Please understand, I had to seal you inside the staff, because if I didn't you would have followed me here and suffered the same fate. I only wish, you could have known the real story."

"_I understand master!_"

"One day you will be released, in a more peaceful and distant time. What will it be like? I wonder if – UGGH UGH!" Sir Aaron cried as he was hit by a wave of obvious pain. "I have – No regrets. My journey has been good. I served a beautiful queen, and – You and I shared many adventures! Hmmm… Those memories – Will always be with me!"

"_Master…If you could only hear me! I want to tell you how much you mean to me!_" Lucario said as he began to cry.

"Lucario…" the Sir Aaron of the past continued, "Farewell. You were more to me than just a student. You were my closest friend."

"_I feel the same._"

"Who knows – It could be – we'll see each other again one day. I hope so my friend." Sir Aaron finished as he disappeared.

"_Aaron my friend_" Lucario called as the time flower's effect dissipated, "_I'm sorry I failed you._"

"That's not true!" Ash said, "You proved you are a true Guardian of Aura, just like him!"

"_Thank you ash._"

Lucario grunted.

"Pika!" called Pikachu.

"Lucario!" Ash said, "Please, hang on! You can't leave us yet!"

"_Ugh, I have to go. Sir Aaron – is waiting for me._" Lucario grunted before fading away into auric energy just as Sir Aaron had.

-Back Outside-

Max, May, and Brock began to look around some.

"AH!" cried Max looking down the path towards a cave, just as Ash and Kidd came out.

"Hey! We're here!" Ash shouted up to them.

"Pika!" shouted Pikachu.

"They're ok!" cried Max as he ran down the hill.

"Ash!" came May's call as she joined her younger brother in running to the others.

"And Kidd!" called Brock, before running down and around the group straight to Kidd.

"You're ok!" May said upon rejoining the other two.

"Kidd! I can finally bask in your beauty again!" said Brock, getting down on one knee and taking Kidd's hand.

"Where's Lucario?" asked Max, with a concerned look on his face.

"Lucario…" Ash began, "Lucario went off to be with a friend."

The others gasped.

"You mean…" started Brook, but he never finished his statement, he didn't need to.

"I'm sorry," said May, "I wish there was something we could have done to help it."

"Maybe it's for the best," said Brock, "but it's hard to believe Lucario is really gone."

"(_No, it's not gone._)" Ash thought to himself.

"It's Aura is with me!" He finished aloud.

-End of Chapter 1-

Yeah yeah, I know essentially typed out the end of the movie, I wanted to do more, but I'm already over 2,100 words, and need a break from typing, so I'm going to explain my system for your input, and then be done for now.

First off though, I want to apologize to Nintendo and company for basically typing up the end of the movie. Like I said, I wanted to keep going, but my fingers are going to fall off soon.

You control the story starting chapter 3. How you may ask, simple. PM me your ideas and I will set up a poll after I get enough good ideas, then after a week or so of voting, I will write up a chapter based on the winning idea. Just so you know, though, the poll will be set so that no one can look at the results until after the poll is over, and I will be taking the results from the poll before it closes and then deleting the poll, so you'll have to wait for each chapter to come out to see what idea won!

And NO I will NOT regard any ideas sent to me through a review. I want to be able to discuss the ideas with you to get a better idea of what you are thinking about, and this is easier to do if I'm not responding to a review. So there.

-NanoCarp


	2. The Dream

Hello again everyone! Before we get started, I wanted to say thanks to all those who voted in the last poll to affect the story… No, you'll just have to keep reading for the results.

Thank you to my first (and only) reviewer, Stolloss. While I was at first shocked because of what you said, I realize that they were all valid criticisms, so in response to your comment that essentially asked why I writing without a known plot, I have decided that I am going to try to make each chapter, able to stand on its own as a shorter story that fits into an arc. As well as figuring out a vague idea of where I want this to go.

A/N: (Added halfway through writing) Well, I think it's clear now that I'm not going to be getting much help from you out there in terms of new ideas, so I'll be trying to figure stuff out for myself. I will still take ideas, but since no one seems to even want to vote, I may have to go with even shorter poll times, and I will pick the options if I manage to have enough ideas.

Well, let's get to it folks, the first original chapter…

* * *

><p>Chapter 2: The Dream<p>

"PIKACHU!" cried Ash, searching everywhere for the little electric pokémon who was his best friend. But no matter how hard he looked, Pikachu was nowhere to be found. In fact, there was nothing to be found, as Ash ran, the forest he was just in became nothing but darkness.

"Great," Ash said, "Now I'm lost, alone, and going crazy." But just then he saw something that he couldn't believe.

"Lucario?" he called out, for there in front of him was the blue and black dog pokémon that he had just so recently shared an adventure with. Lucario appeared to be injured and unable to move, but had a very puzzled expression on his face.

"Lucario," said Ash, running over to check on the pokémon, "are you alright?"

"_I – I'm not sure…_" Lucario said telepathically. "_I remember dying… and going to see Sir Aaron, but he said that I wasn't supposed to be there yet. Next thing I know, I wake up here…_"

"Well…" Ash wondered, "I don't know what's going on here either, but you look like you could use a hand getting up." Ash finished, extending a hand to Lucario.

"_Thank you, Ash_"

"Not a problem…"

Lucario reached for Ash's hand, but at the moment that Lucario's paw made contact with Ash's hand, they both knew something was wrong…

"LUCARIO! Your dissolving again!" Ash panicked.

Lucario could only gasp, and Ash could only watch as his most recent friend dissolved before his eyes into auric energy once again. There was something different about it this time though… Instead of dissipating, the energy simply stayed there for a moment, as if unsure where to go. All of a sudden, it began to flow into Ash's body.

"AHHHUGH!" he yelled as it finished. Ash slowly got up from the kneeling position he had found himself in, when he noticed that his skin was tingling all over his body.

"(_What's happening to me?_)" Ash pondered as fur began to grow all over. It wasn't painful or uncomfortable, just a bit… warm. Next he felt something sting in his teeth, almost like a dentist's drill. He reached up and felt his teeth, but something was off, he had FANGS! "(_Great, what's next?_)" Ash thought sarcastically. But then came a sharp pain on the backs of his hands, the top of his feet, and the center of his chest, as a metal spike began to grow from each location.

Ash doubled over in pain and could not speak. A few moments later the pain was gone, and he looked himself over. He had grown blue fur over most of his body, with the exception of a tan patch around the spike in his chest.

"Well, I'm glad that's over with." he said to no one in particular. But then the tingling sensation came back and Ash let out a groan. It didn't hurt this time, though, as he watched as his middle and ring fingers on each hand fused, and his hands became paws. He looked down and noticed the same happening to his feet. Next his face began to change. It felt like someone was pulling out, gently, but forcefully on his nose, and elongating it into a muzzle. Complete with a wet black nose at the end, he soon discovered, as he felt it with his new paws. But the changes didn't stop there, he began to feel something pushing at the back of his jeans, and trying to knock his hat off of his head, from his scalp!

RIIIIP! "Aww man, those were my best jeans!" Ash complained loudly as tail appeared just above his butt.

POP! His hat few off of his head down in front of him.

"That was odd," Ash muttered, bending down to pick up his hat. But as he did so, a pair of ears that he did not recognize showed up in front of his face. He began to panic, and shot straight back up, the ears flipping back behind his head. He slowly reached back and found that they were now his own ears, but then he felt a pulling sensation on the sides of his head.

"(_Wait, I thought these were my ears…_)" wondered Ash, still holding the long ears as his human ones moved up the side of his head, stopping on top and becoming pointed.

"Great, well I certainly hope that luca -!" Ash's new paws shot up and covered his muzzle.

"Lucario? Ar!" He yelled.

"(_Great, now I can't talk. And did I just say "Lucario"?_)"

As if on cue, a pond appeared out of nowhere, and Ash peered in to try and see his reflection, but instead saw Lucario standing there, wearing HIS clothes!

"(_I'VE TURNED INTO LUCARIO!_)" Ash screamed in his head.

"(_What just happened…? I feel weird…_)" said a familiar voice inside Ash's head.

"(_Lucario? Is that you?_)" asked Ash inside his head.

"(_Ash?_)"

"(_Yeah, but why do I look like you?_)"

"(_And why am I wearing -)_"

Ash sat straight up, or as straight as he could get in his sleeping bag.

"That was a good one, Pikachu!" shouted Max, laughing joyfully at Ash's rude awakening.

"Pika- cha!" cried the mouse, electricity still sparking from the sacs in his cheeks.

"Ash, your hair is smoking…" Brock stated from across the campsite.

Ash patted his head a few times to stop it, and glared a bit a Pikachu.

"Why'd you have to wake me up Pikachu? I wanted to see how that dream finished…" Ash complained.

"Because," May said, "Brock is done cooking breakfast!"

A few minutes later, Ash was busy shoving food in his mouth, getting all he could of Brock's cooking.

"Slow down Ash!" scolded May, "You're not a Muchlax OR a Snorelax, so don't shove all that into your mouth at once!"

"I'm just hungry, ok?" Ash retorted between mouthfuls of food. "And why did you have to use such a strong thunderbolt on me Pikachu?"

"Pika!" shouted Pikachu, shaking it's head.

"Sure hurt more than usual…" grumbled Ash and went back to his food.

"Anyways, Ash," Max said, "What were you dreaming about that was so interesting?"

"I can't really remember… All I know is that Lucario was there and he needed my help." Ash, stopped eating for a moment and remembered his friend.

"Oh…" Max said, somberly continuing his meal.

"I'm sorry Ash…" May said.

"It's not your fault," said Ash, "And it's not like he's really gone for good… I can't help but feel like he's still with us somehow…" Ash began to stare off into space.

They finished the meal in silence, which didn't take very long, with Ash's appetite.

"Ash?" Brock said, "Are you feeling okay?"

"Yeah, why?" asked Ash in return.

"Well, you've been scratching your body almost constantly since you woke up this morning…"

"Really? Well I guess now that you mention it, I do feel kinda itchy…"

"Well, I'm sure it's nothing, besides, it's time to get going."

The group packed up their campsite and got back on the road. Unfortunately, they didn't get very far, before a hole opened up underneath their feet, and they all fell into a deep pit trap.

"OW!" yelped Ash as he landed on his butt. "Great, now of all times…"

"Ahahahahah!" came the laughter of a voice from up above.

"Here we go again…" moaned Max.

"Is that a voice I hear?" called Jessie from the top of the pit.

"OH SHUT UP ALREADY!" May screamed at them.

"Hmph, no respect at all from the young ones these days." whined James, Jessie's partner in crime.

"Pikachu, care to end this quickly?" Ash said.

"Pika! Pikachu!" Pikachu replied.

"End this now with thunder, so we can climb out of here."  
>"PIKA-CHUUUUUUUUUU!" screamed Pikachu, letting loose a large bolt of thunder from his body at Team Rocket.<p>

All that could be heard was and explosion followed by, "Looks like Team Rocket's blasting off again!"

The only thing left for the group was to climb out of the trap.

"Well, I'm glad THAT's over with." May stated, staring at where Team Rocket was about 2 seconds before.

"Nice to have you back Pikachu!" Ash cried, hugging the electric mouse. "Now… When's lunch Brock?"

"I can't believe you can think about food right now…" moaned Brock, still sore from the fall. "Ash? ASH? WHERE'D YOU GO ASH?"

"I'm up here!" shouted Ash from the top of the pitfall. "Hurry it up already."

"How the heck did he get up there so fast? That was impressive even for Ash…" mumbled Brock.

Later at dinner…

"OWCH!" Ash screamed.

"Did you really just bite your tongue AGAIN?" Max giggled.

"No…" Ash mumbled, "This time it was my cheek…"

Everyone but Ash laughed.

"Ugh…" Ash sighed, "You know what guys, I don't think I can eat anymore. I'm going to get ready to camp for the night."

"Ash, not hungry?" Max was stunned. "It must be the end of the world."

"Shut up Max. My mouth just hurts too much to eat anymore." Ash retorted, rolling his eyes.

Ash got up and went to go get changed into his pajamas.

"(_Ugh… What a day…_)" Ash thought to himself. He reached up to feel his mouth, which was sore beyond belief. "(_What could possibly be making my mouth hut so much?._)"

"AHHHHH! What the heck is this?"

"What is it now Ash?" May said turning around to see what was up. "Ummm… Brock, Max, please tell me that I'm seeing things…"

What it was that May was seeing, was two long and sharp teeth, now protruding from Ash's mouth like fangs.

"Well, I guess that explains why you kept biting yourself…" Max said.

"Is now really a good time Max? In case you haven't noticed, I'm kind of growing FANGS over here, and needless to say, it's freaking me out." Ash called.

Brock walked over to Ash and began to examine the canine teeth protruding from his mouth. "OUCH!" yelled Brock, cutting his finger on the incisor.

"Hey Brock, they're sharp, as my poor mouth knows all too well…" Ash said, spitting out the blood left in his mouth from Brock's cut.

"Well you could have warned me about that sooner."

"I thought it was rather obvious thank you very much."

"Ummm… yo-you guys see the f-fur too, right?" Max stammered.

Max was right, Ash had begun to sprout a thin layer of mostly blue fur, with black fur growing in a plus shape on his face, as well as his hands and feet, and tan fur growing on his chest, slightly thicker than the rest.

"Well, that explains the itchiness… I guess…" Ash mumbled, "So what the heck is happening to me?"

"I'm not really sure…" Brock said, "but I think we should go see Prof. Oak about this…"

"That sounds like a good idea… Better than anything I could come up with anyways."

"I get to see Professor Oak? COOL!" shouted Max.

May, Brock and Ash only rolled their eyes.

"Should we leave now or in the morning?" Ash asked, wondering how ready everyone else would be to travel again without rest. After recovering from the shock and initial pain of growing fangs and fur, he was feeling much better than ever. He felt very rested, and like he could run for miles without stopping for a rest.

"I think we should go for just a little bit more, and then stop… you know? Travel just a bit further per day than we normally do." Suggested May.

"That sounds like a good idea." Ash said, "Let's get going then!"

So the group begins their journey back to Pallet town.

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><p>Well that wasn't too bad, now was it. Hmmm this writing thing is a bit easier than I expected… Oh well. Just over 2000 words later, chapter 2 is now done. I hope to see more people voting and handing in ideas now that this is up, but I'm not getting my hopes up too much.<p>

This story will probably not be updated as much as I normally would, as I am starting to work with other authors to help them in writing their stories, so I may be focusing on them for awhile, while I try to come up for more ideas for this story.

Thanks for reading!

-NanoCarp

AN: Ok, well, I just decided that since I don't come up with situations and new characters well on my own, I will accept OC's from you all for the group to encounter. For the most part, they will only appear for one chapter or so each, unless I decide that I like your OC a lot. So, here's what I need for an OC submission:

1) Name, Full name and what they prefer to be called, if different.  
>2) Age: Ok, this one is a bit loose, and is mostly to help gauge the character's actions.<br>3) Appearance: Pretty self explanatory. HOWEVER! No Pokémorphs or the like will be accepted, unless I state otherwise in a preceding chapter. You are allowed though to have an OC who is one of those nut jobs of the Pokémon world that goes out of their way to dress up as a pokémon to a ridiculous degree.  
>4) Personality: Again, I need to know how they will behave themselves around others.<br>5) Occupation: That sounds a lot more formal than what I want, but it's all I can really think of. Basically, are they a trainer, breeder, coordinator, or something else in the Pokémon world? Include if they are traveling and if so where to, and any other information about what their plans are.  
>6) Party pokémon: Any pokémon they have with them, and KEEP IT REASONABLE! If your OC is walking around with a belt full of legendaries or something, they will be rejected. Also, a quick personality description is required for each party member.<br>Anything else you can think of that I need to know about your OC should also be included, even if it doesn't fit above, these are just minimums.

SUBMITTING AN OC!  
>Do NOT submit an OC through reviews. I would like to keep my list of OCs that you guys send in a secret, so no one knows but me who the group may encounter next. I will respond to you with any questions I have about your OC, but do not take this as a decision that yours will be used. Do not think that just because yours wasn't used in the chapter that was released after you submit one, means that I won't use it at all, because I will feature no more than 2 OC's per chapter. Creators of OCs will be mentioned at the end of any chapters they appear in.<p> 


	3. The Journey Home

OK then… Chapter 3… Before we get started, I have a quick question. Does anyone know why writer's block has to suck so much? I feel like anything I try to set up for the plot just doesn't make much sense, so here's a journey chapter, don't ask about where they set out from, because you'll make my head explode thinking about. Seriously, just DON'T.

Chapter 3: The Trip

"Are we there yet?" Ash whined.

"Ash, I don't care what is wrong with you," May said, gritting her teeth, "but if you ask me that question one more time, I'm going to hit you."

"But…"

"Ash, for once I agree with my sister…" Max moaned, trying to block out Ash's constant nagging.

"I'm sorry guys," Ash said, "I think it has something to do with whatever is happening to me. I think part of it is I'm anxious to get there so Oak can figure out what's wrong with me, and part of it is that I feel like… Like I have WAY more energy than I know what to do with…"

"Well, thankfully for all of us, we should be arriving in Pallet Town by the end of the day." Brock spoke up, looking up from the map he had out in front of him.

"Sooooo… How are your teeth, er, fangs Ash?" Max asked, staring at Ash's new fangs.

"Well," Ash said, "the fangs themselves don't hurt any, but they don't fit my mouth and I keep bi- OW! Biting myself. Brock, do we have any more ice?"

"Umm, sure…" Brock said, getting out some ice from the cooler on his back. He handed it to Ash who promptly stuck the ice cube in his mouth.

"Ahhhhhh… That feels pretty good." Ash said, relaxing slightly.

-Later, at Lunch—

"AUGH! I CAN'T TAKE THIS ANYMORE!" Ash screamed, throwing down his fork onto the groups picnic equipment, which was used daily.

"What's wrong now Ash?" May asked, not really sure if she wanted to know the answer.

"IT'S THESE FANGS!" Ash yelled. He paused and took a few deep breaths before continuing. "I can't stand constantly biting myself, and it gets even worse when I try to eat! I mean, I can't take more than th-"

"Ash? Are you okay?" asked Max in a slightly panicked tone.

Ash heard him, and wanted to respond, but he just couldn't. All of a sudden Ash felt a strange sensation on his face, almost like someone was pulling on his nose and chin.

"ASH! Y-YO-YOUR FACE!" It was now May's turn to panic, startled by what she was seeing, she fell backwards.

A few moments passed and Ash could see what it was exactly that everyone was staring at. He could see his own face being elongated into a muzzle, like a dog's. After that, Ash simply half collapsed and half sat down.

"What exactly just happened?" Brock wondered aloud, speaking what was on everyone's minds.

"Well," Ash said, "I don't know, but this new muzzle or whatever seems to fit my new teeth a whole lot better than my normal mouth does, so at least I'll hopefully stop biting myself!" Ash made to get back to the food at hand, but stopped when he noticed everyone looking at him oddly. "Uh, guys? Are you all ok?"

"Um, Ash?" May managed to get out, "You're kind of bleeding…"

"Yeah, like, a LOT." Max added.

Ash brought his hand up to his new mouth, and found that the cuts he had gotten from biting himself were now bleeding quite a bit. Ash gasped and promptly shoved some ice into his mouth to stop the bleeding. "I guess the cuts opened back up…" He mumbled and everyone else burst into laughter.

A few minutes later, after the bleeding stopped, Ash decided to give eating another try. To make a medium story ridiculously short, there were NO leftovers from lunch, or breakfast for that matter.

"ASH! SLOW DOWN!" screamed May, as Ash finished off the leftover food from breakfast.

"But it tastes sooo good." Ash said, flopping down onto his back.

"Well," Brock said, "I think we should get moving now, at least if we want to make it back to Pallet Town by the end of the day."

Ash nodded and got back up, and the group was on their way, once again, to Pallet.

"I CAN SEE IT!"

"Ash! Calm down!" Max yelled, covering his ears from Ash's overly loud and hyper scream.

"But I'm HOME!"

"Yes Ash, we know."

"I'm gonna go see mom, and Oak, and, and, and-"

"SHUT UP ASH!" May snapped. She stopped and took a few deep breaths to calm down. "We all know that you're excited to be home, but you need to calm down. Besides, we need to get Oak to look at you before we see your mom. We should make this whole thing with you changing into, whatever, the first priority."

"Actually, what are you becoming?" Brock wondered aloud.

"He looks kind of like Lucario…." Max said, earning stares from May and Ash, and a face-palm from Brock.

"I can't believe I didn't see it sooner!" Brock said, holding back a groan.

"You two think I'm becoming a Lucario?" Ash said.

"Yes. Maybe. It's my best guess anyways."

"I feel SOOO much better now." Ash said, with a bit more than a hint of sarcasm.

"Well, I'm sorry I'm not an expert on rare pokémon." Brock retorted. "Let's just get moving back to town now."

A few minutes later, the group arrived on Professor Oak's doorstep.

"Well," Ash said, "Here goes nothing." And knocked on Professor Oak's door.

"Just a minute!" came the reply from inside, followed by a loud crash.

"You OK in there Professor?" Ash called.

"Yes, I'm fine. Can't say the same for my old set of transfer equipment. CALM DOWN TAUROS!"

Ash couldn't hold back a laugh at the unusual craziness inside Oak's lab.

"OK, I'm here," Professor Oak began, as he opened the door, "So how can – Wait." He looked around at the group, "I could have sworn I heard Ash's voice. Where is he?"

"Hi professor!" Ash said waving his furry hand in the professor's face.

"Ash?"

"Yes, it's me."

"What's happened to you?"

-End of Chapter 3-

Well, it's not great, but it's something. Like it says on my profile's pseudo-blog, I hope to re-write this chapter with the addition of someone's OC later. Thanks for bearing with me for this filler chapter, and I am going to move on to chapter 4 for now, and when I get both some OCs and some time to re-write, I will.

-NanoCarp


	4. At the Lab

Well, hello there everyone. Welcome to chapter 4. But before we begin I have to report some stuff. Mostly, figuring out that last chapter, pretty much put me in with the men in white jackets at the happy hotel, if you know what I mean. Tee hee (Inside joke with my friends). They let me out now after I explained what happened, but I do have to say, those rubber rooms are a hell of a lot of fun! Boing…

Anyways, thanks to those of you who have reviewed, favorited and added my story to alerts, you have NO idea how awesome it feels when I get those emails. And also, thanks to those of you who have submitted an OC. So far the grand total is 1, but… hint hint.

A quick reminder of my key for languages ect:  
>"Spoken"<p>

"_Telepathic_"

NEW: "**Translated Pokéspeech**"

'To themselves'

'**To themselves (Pokéspeech)**'

'_Private Thoughts_' (Changed from "(_Private Thoughts_)")

But enough of me saying the same things you see everyone else say before their chapters, and on to the actual chapter itself.

Chapter 4: At the Lab

"What's happened to you?"

"We have no idea. That's kind of why we came to you." Ash said, staring Professor Oak in the face. It seemed that the Professor was having trouble getting over Ash's muzzle, fur and fangs, which in retrospect, is probably to be expected.

"This isn't happening, I'm just dreaming. I was knocked out by Tauros…"

"Wish I could agree with you Professor, but it's real…"

"I… I-"

"Can we come in?" May cut in.

"O-Of course. How rude of me." Oak stuttered, and let the group inside his lab, being careful to close the door behind them. "Okay," he said, shaking his head, "how exactly did this start? Wait. Before you answer, let's start some tests." Oak plucked some of Ash's hair.

"OW! Could you at least have warned me?" he yelled.

Oak chuckled and continued to pull out a piece of fur as well. He then placed them in a machine. "Ok, now start to explain please."

"Well…" Ash started to tell his story, "it started when we found a Lucario. He came out of this staff thingy… It seemed to be working kind of like a pokéball. Well eventually we went to go see this Tree of Life, and it started getting, I guess you could say anyways, that it was sick. Lucario and I eventually healed it by giving up some of our Auras to heal Mew… and then Lucario… went to see his old trainer…" he finished up, with a nervous look on his face, and looking at Max.

"Ash, you can just say that he died…" Max said, resenting his treatment of being a little kid.

"Oh…" Oak said, "well, now that you mention it, you are looking kind of like a Lucario. But as to why, I haven't the slightest idea." A machine pinged somewhere in the lab and Professor Oak hurried over to the counter. "Hmm.. this is very strange…" he mumbled just loud enough for the others to hear.

"What is it Professor?" Ash asked.

"I'm not sure yet, but it's definitely not normal."

"Well what can you tell us?"

"Nothing really, I've never even heard of something like this before. I can't even quite figure out what is going on here. I'll just have to monitor the situation, and see what happens."

"Great, now I'm a human science experiment." Ash said rolling his eyes.

May started laughing. "I don't know if we can say that you're a HUMAN experiment anymore."

"Hardy har har. Laugh it up why don't you? You're not the one mutating."

As soon as he said this, Ash regretted his choice of words. He felt something at the base of his spine expanding… "Um, guys, I think it's happening again…" The lump began to push against his pants, the pressure growing and growing until…

*RIIIIP!*

A tail pushed it's way out of Ash's pants, tearing a hole as it continued to grow.

"Let me guess." Ash said, "I just grew a tail?" He began spinning around to try and see if it, and in the process hit Max in the face.

"Ow! Hey, watch where you swing that! And yes it is a tail." Max began to rub his nose.

"Sorry about that, Max…" Ash said.

"It's ok, I just hope that this doesn't become a regular occurrence."

Ash's tail began to droop a bit, much like a dog's when it's sad. Noticing this Ash said, "Hmm, I guess it will be awhile until I can control it consciously, huh?"

"Probably," Brock said, "Considering the fact that you just grew a new body part, I wouldn't expect you to have complete control of it for awhile…"

"This is amazing!" cried Professor Oak. "I can't believe this is happening right before my eyes!"

"Speak for yourself Professor." Ash said, "It's not exactly a pleasant experience."

"I'm sorry, Ash. But I don't know what to say. It's simply amazing, even though I have no idea what is happening."

"I think it's pretty obvious! I'm turning into a Lucario!"

"Um… well, yes but, the questions are how and why."

"And that is exactly why we came to you." Brock cut in, "We were hoping you could shed some light on this situation."

"Well, I hate to disappoint you, but as of right now, I have no idea, but we can always run some more tests and see if we can't figure it out. Ash, could you come over here please?" Oak said stepping over to large machine with a chamber big enough for a Snorelax to fit in.

"Ummm… you don't want me to get inside that thing, do you?" Ash said as he came over.

"Actually, yes, I do."

"Well, what is it exactly?"

"It's a pokémon scanner. It can tell us all sorts of information that even a pokédex can't. I figure, this will tell us for sure if you're becoming a pokémon, and if so what species as well as other information."

"Well, ok…" Ash said and hesitantly stepped inside the machine. "This won't hurt, right?"

"It shouldn't. I've never been able to talk to the pokémon inside though."

"That makes me feel SOO much better. Let's just get done with this."

Professor Oak pushed a few buttons on the console and then took a step back. As he watched, a line of light passed back and forth over Ash's body. But on the second pass of the light, Ash began to panic, reaching his hands up to his ears, with a confused look on his face. Oak noticed this and-

"Goodness, it seems as if his ears have simply disappeared from his head!" Oak observed. But just then Ash's hat popped off of his head, revealing two triangular ears at the top of his head, just like Lucario's.

"Remind me never to turn into a pokémon again. The whole growing new ears thing felt really weird." Ash said, stepping out of the machine. "It was like, the whole world went perfectly silent, and then I could hear things better than before."

"Pika pikachu." Pikachu said, getting up from the bench and running over to check on Ash. "Pi-pika pik-**ter hearing than you humans.**"

Ash could do nothing but stand there in shock. "Say that again Pikachu…"

"**Why would I? It's not like you can understand me.**"

"But I just did." Ash said, still in a state of disbelief.

"Wait, you understand what Pikachu is saying?" Oak asked.

Ash simply nodded. "Word for word…"

"**I think you're lying!**" Pikachu yelled.

"I AM NOT LYING!" Ash yelled back.

"**Fine, cucumbers. What did I just say?**"

"You said cucumbers, and asked me to repeat what you said."

Pikachu nodded, a stunned look on his face.

"Cucumbers? Really?" Max asked.

"Yeah what was with that Pikachu?"

"**I wanted to be something completely random so you wouldn't be able to guess it!**"

"That makes sense I guess." Ash said.

"So, I guess you really are becoming a pokémon…" May said, "I hope that doesn't mean you won't b-"

"NO! DON'T SAY IT!" Ash suddenly yelled, "You'll jinx me, then I won't be able to talk anymore!"

"Fine." May said rolling her eyes. 'It'll happen weather or not I say it…'

"**I heard that…**"

"What did he say?" Max asked.

"He said 'I heard that.' What did you hear, Pikachu?" Ash said.

"**She said that she thinks you'll lose people speech anyways…**"

"That's mean May!" Ash said, a hint of anger in his voice.

"Well, if you are turning into a pokémon, a Lucario more specifically, wouldn't it follow to think that he won't be able to talk at some point?"

"We don't know that for sure yet May." Oak cut in, "He may not turn fully into a pokémon."

May rolled her eyes, "Well I'm sorry that I didn't think of that, I'm not the know it all professor here."

"May, no need to snap!" Brock chastised, "We're all friends here and Oak is just trying to point out something you missed! He's not trying to be rude you kn-"

"PROFESSOR!" A voice came from upstairs.

"What?" Oak called back.

Tracy Sketchit came running down the stairs. "Professor! Someone stole the- Oh, hi guys! Where's Ash and who's that?" Tracy asked pointing at Ash. "Never mind, Professor, we have a problem, someone stole all the potions and about half of our supply of pokéfood!"

"Did you check the security cameras?"

"I was just headed to the security room to check them now, I thought I'd tell you first. I'll go and check them, you should go start trying to find the robbers!"

'_It was probably the Rockets…_' Ash thought, as everyone ran over to the storage room.

"Well, what do we do now?" Max asked.

"Ugh, what's that smell?" Ash called, putting a hand to his muzzle.

"What smell?" asked Max a puzzled look on his face.

"You mean you can't smell it?" Ash asked, Max just shook his head. "It smells like… like… Kind of like a whole lot of really cheap hairspray I guess."

May and Max began to laugh at Ash.

"If you could figure that out, why'd you bother asking?" Max chuckled.

"I still think he's lost it! I don't smell a thing!" May said.

"I don't know how you guys can stand it! I'm going to go help Tracy!" Ash said and stormed out of the room.

"Pika! Pi pikachu!" Pikachu yelled, and followed Ash.

"What's their problem?" May asked.

Brock rolled his eyes, and the group began hunting for clues.

"Ugh I can't believe they can't smell it! I still can!" Ash shouted, a few moments after leaving.

Pikachu ran out of the room, "**Wait up Ash!**" he called and jumped up on Ash's shoulder. "**I don't think you're nuts, I can smell it too, but only a little bit.**"

Ash stood straight up all of a sudden.

"**Woah! Warn me before you do that will ya?**"

"Yeah, sure but I think I just had an idea…"

"**Why does that scare me?**"

"Shut up and listen. Who do we know that uses too much hairspray?"

"**Jessie?**"

"Ding! Two points for you Pikachu. Maybe since I'm turning into a lucario, maybe I can scent them out or something… Lucario is a dog pokémon, and dogs have incredible senses of smell, right?"

"**Ash, I think this is the first good idea you've had in a long time.**"

"Wow. A pikachu that can use sarcasm. Things just keep getting better and better." Ash rolled his eyes.

"**What? It was a complement! Now, are we going to try this or not?**"

"I've never done this before, so… Hmmm. I guess I just try to find where the smell is stronger…" Ash began sniffing the air and walking around. He closed his eyes and continued to walk, following the smell of hairspray. "This is a bit easier with my eyes closed…"

"**Ash! Look ou-**"

Ash had walked straight into a wall.

"Well, that hurt…" getting back up Ash had another idea. "Hey Pikachu?"

"**What now?**"

"Why are so cranky all of a sudden?"

"**You'd be cranky too if you were just thrown from a height more than 3 times your height!**"

"Point taken, but do you think you could kind of be my eyes?"

"**Huh?**"

"Listen, just warn me if I'm walking straight into a wall. Warn me at like 5 feet from the wall, or whatever."

"**Umm, ok.**"

-A few minutes later-

"**Ash! Door!**"

Ash opened his eyes and went outside. "Great!"

"**What?**"

"I can barely smell it anymore, must be because we're outside…" Ash shrugged his shoulders.

"**Or maybe it settled a bit?**"

"No way, I'm not crouching to the ground like a dog."

"**Why not? You already look a lot like one.**"

"Fine, if it helps catch Team Rocket…" '_Goodbye dignity, we had a good run…_' Ash took Pikachu's advice and bent over to the ground. And surprisingly enough, it worked. They traced the smell around the Professor's wide open 'yard' where the Pokémon sent in by trainers are free to wander.

"I think they went this way." Ash said, pointing at the forest nearby.

"**That sounds like somewhere the Rockets would hide…**" Pikachu said.

All of a sudden, Ash found himself on the ground.

"**WHAT DID YOU DO TO ASH?**" called a slightly high pitched voice. "**AND DON'T LIE! I CAN SMELL HIM ON YOU!**"

"I AM Ash!" Ash called back.

"**LIAR!**" said the voice. "**If you WERE Ash, how can you understand me?**"

"**Bayleef, please calm down.**" Pikachu said.

'_Ah… it's Bayleef. That explains a lot._' Ash thought.

"**And YOU!**" Bayleef continued, "**What did you let this weird thing do to Ash?**"

"**BAYLEEF! IT IS ASH! I'll explain later! We're trying to find Team Rocket!**"

"**What's Team Rocket doing here?**"

"**We're not sure, but someone stole a lot of supplies from the storage room. Ash said he could smell Jessie's hairspray, so we're trying to follow the smell!**"

"Hey! Forgetting something you two?" Ash called out.

"**Um… sorry?**" Bayleef said, getting off of Ash.

"Okay now… back to hunting down the Rockets…"

A while later the trio found themselves at what appeared to be a campsite.

"Um… no one's here…" Ash said.

"**Congratulations for stating the obvious. Do you want a cookie?**" Pikachu said, rolling his eyes.

"Actually, yes." Ash said. Pikachu sweat-dropped.

"**Anyways, it looks like they left the supplies here…**" Pikachu said, pointing at a large stack of crates. "**I wonder why they aren't here then…**"

"**Maybe it's a trap! We should run!**" Bayleef said and began pushing at Ash.

"No, Jessie and James aren't smart enough for a trap like this. I think that they're still up to no-good here at Oak's ranch. But where coul-"

Suddenly a large crash was heard, along with the screams of many pokémon.

"What was that?" Ash said.

"**It came from the field near the house! Let's go!**"

-End Chapter 4-

Well, that was actually amusing. Why is it that this amuses me now? I can't stand writing for school… I guess it's the lack of being required to. I only just recently realized I did a cliffhanger of sorts last chapter, and I guess I kind of did one here, but really it just seemed like a good time to end the chapter.

I am still indeed accepting OCs from you all, I still only have one at this point. The form is in chapter 2 and a quick version is on my profile. Yes I know I said that earlier, but I try to not edit the non-story bits after writing them, you know, to preserve the moment. So the before chapter blurbs are written at the time I start the chapter, and even if something changes I won't update it till the after chapter blurb.

Speaking of OCs, I am thinking about introducing the one I did get in this next chapter, so keep an eye out for him.

In terms of my personal life, High School winding down now, I graduate on the 31st of May, that's this month. Yeah, I get off early huh? Apparently my high school got first dibs on DAR Constitution Hall (Where they hold the ceremony, for all schools in the county) this year, so we get to graduate almost a month before the end of the school year. This means that hopefully chapters will come a bit faster, not much though because I am getting a job for the summer, and I will have my video games back. (If anyone wants to add me as a friend, my Xbox Live gamer-tag is NanoCarp0) So now I'll have 3 things that I will be doing with my free time. But I will still try to update, and all of your reviews, and adding my story or me to your favorites/alerts and the emails sends me when you do inspire me greatly. I can't tell you how good it feels when you guys show that you like this project, which I started completely on a whim. Thank you.

I am still accepting ideas and OCs, just wanted to mention it so that everyone knows.

-NanoCarp


	5. Prepare for Trouble

Hello everyone! This is my first time writing using LibreOffice. I am using because I am now collaborating with fellow writer Aleron's Sword. We are both kind of beta reading each others stories, maybe co-authoring occasionally. But the problem is is that we were using different programs, thankfully one of them is free. That would be this one. Problem? I'm gonna have to get used to this program, and I won't be able to write anywhere I have internet anymore. But such is life, at least now we can both bring you better quality stories! Even though I don't like this LibreOffice as much as Microsoft Word…

So now it begins again. New program, new chapter, new editor. I'm going to miss the live word count, but hey, it's worth it. Enough of my blabbing, let's get to the story now, shall we?

Chapter 5: Prepare for Trouble

The group charged over to the field next to Oak's house. Team Rocket was indeed not finished with their evil activities for the day. The field was covered in pokémon, trapped by some sort of net, that none of the pokémon seemed capable of getting free from. Even Professor Oak, Brock, May, Max and Tracy were trapped by nets, so that they couldn't go and help the others.

"AHAHAHAHA!" Jessie laughed, "Finally, a successful job!"

"You knows it's just cause the main twerp ain't here." Meowth said.

"Don't spoil this for me, we've worked too long for this!" Jessie scolded the pokémon, smacking Meowth.

"TEAM ROCKET!" Ash screamed. "Let the pokémon go!"

"**Yeah! They don't want to go with you!**" Pikachu added his two cents.

"Hmm… what's that?" asked James, staring at Ash, "And how does it know us? And how does it know English? AND why is wearing the twerp's clothes?"

"Those are all very good questions, James, but let's catch it first, THEN ask questions, OK?" Jessie retorted.

James then got out the net gun and took aim at Ash, and fired.

"**NOOO!**" Bayleef screamed, and jumped in front of the flying net, getting caught herself instead of Ash.

"Pikachu, you go after Team Rocket, I'll start letting out the pokémon." Ash said, starting to fiddle with the net Bayleef was now trapped in.

"**Got it. VOLT TACKLE!**" Pikachu charged up and began the high speed attack, running straight for the Rockets.

"Oh no you don't!" James called, and fired the net cannon again before Pikachu could react, catching him up and trapping him in the net.

"What are we going to do now?" wondered Brock from the other side of the field, still wrapped up in his net.

"I don't know," said Oak, "but we'd better do it soon."

James then hefted the gun and pointed it at Ash. "And now we bag the rare pokémon."

"ASH! LOOK OUT!" screamed Max.

Ash looked up from Bayleef's net just in time to see another net wrapping itself around him.

He screamed. That's all he could do. No one could break out of the nets. It seemed like Team Rocket had finally won.

"I still can't believe we won this time." James said, earning a smack across the face from Jessie.

"Are you two idiots trying to jinx us?" She yelled.

Sure enough, at that moment Ash began squirming and screaming in pain, still trapped in his net. He felt something hard pushing it's way out of his chest and hands.

Jessie, James, and Meowth could only stare in wonder and amazement as 3 spikes pushed their way out of Ash's chest and hands, tearing up his shirt in the process. Next thing anyone knew, Ash's thrashing had torn the net into pieces, thanks to the metal spikes. Ash continued screaming and thrashing about for a few moments before the pain subsided and he realized he was free. Instinctively Ash put his hands together, and formed an Aura Sphere attack, and threw the ball of energy at Team Rocket.

"LOOKS LIKE TEAM ROCKET'S BLASTING OFF AGAIN!" screamed the trio.

The field fell completely silent. No one saying anything for a good minute or so. All were staring at Ash, who in turn was staring at his hands.

"What exactly just happened?" Ash asked, to no one in particular.

"An Aura Sphere, by the looks of it." Professor Oak chimed in, "And a powerful one at that! When did you learn to use Lucario's attacks?"

"Umm… just now?" Ash said, untangling the nets on his friends.

"Alright!" Tracy said, standing up, "Let's get to work, those pokémon aren't gonna free themselves!"

The others nodded, and they all set to work freeing the other pokémon.

"So, any ideas as to why I shot off an attack?" Ash asked.

"Well, you ARE turning into a pokémon, as far as we can tell." Oak said.

"I guess…"

"**You sound like you think that it's a bad thing!**" Pikachu cut in.

"**YEAH!**" Bayleef added, "**Now we can understand each other and everything!**"

"Yeah, that is pretty cool..." Ash said.

"What did they say, Ash?" Max asked.

"Pikachu said that I was sounding like I didn't like the idea of becoming a pokémon, which I'm not sure how I feel on that point. And Bayleef was just excited still that I can understand them." Ash answered. "I'm going to go back outside for a little while."

"OK, just don't get lost." May said, a grin on her face.

"HEY! I don't get lost THAT easily!" Ash snapped.

"I wonder if I can use Aura Sphere again..." Ash wondered aloud. He began to try and focus, hoping to re-create the attack that had saved the group earlier. He was interrupted by a sharp pain on the back of his head. "OWW!" he cried as the second and third sets of 'ears' (at least in appearance) that Lucarios have, and tend to react to Aura usage, burst from the back of his skull. Ash reached back and felt the new appendages, and Pikachu ran over to see if he was OK.

"**Ash! What happened? Are you hurt?**" Pikachu asked.

"No, I'm fine Pikachu. I was trying to see if I could use Aura Sphere again, and well, this happened." Ash said, still holding the ears.

"**Maybe it had something to do with you trying to use Aura…?**" Pikachu suggested.

"Nah, I don't really think so."

"**I do.**"

"Well, I'm going to keep trying." Ash said, closing his eyes to focus.

"WHOAH!" Ash suddenly shouted, his eyes opening wide.

"**What happened now?**" Pikachu asked.

"I… I could see you. Kind of. It was like a blue silhouette of you, standing there."

"**Well I hope that you can see me normally.**"

"No, I meant while my eyes were closed... I could see pokémon that were on the other side of the forest too!"

"**I'm going to hazard a guess here that you were seeing their Auras.**"

"I guess that would make sense. Cool!" Ash now held his hands out in front of him, and found that he did not even need to close his eyes to form a sphere of Aura in front of him.

"**HEY!**"

"EEK!" Ash was startled by Pikachu, and dropped the orb on the ground, where it promptly exploded.

"**Well…**" Pikachu said, coughing from the smoke, "**you HAD an Aura Sphere going…**"

"Yeah, until you startled me like that!"

"**What? Am I not allowed to be excited for you?**"

"I understand, Pikachu…" Ash said, "It's just kind of disappointing when I finally had it started, and then I lost focus… Now let's see here…" He formed another sphere of energy in his hands, and was able to throw it away from them without losing focus. "I DID IT!"

Ash and Pikachu began to celebrate, dancing around and yelling, when Ash tripped.

"**What happened Ash? Are you OK?**"

"Yeah, I'm fine. But my feet feel weird…"

"**I think it may be a good idea to take off your shoes then…**"

"Why do you think -" Ash started, but was cut off when his feet burst through his shoes, shredding them. While they hadn't gotten too much larger, the main change was that Ash now had paws instead of feet. "Oh, that's why…"

Pikachu only slapped his forehead.

"Well, I guess we had better go show Professor Oak these new changes." Ash said.

Pikachu hopped up on to Ash's shoulder, and the two headed back to the Lab. Upon arriving, however, they encountered a bit of a problem…

"HEY!" Ash shouted, staring at his hands, or at least what used to be his hands.

"**What's wrong NOW Ash?**" Pikachu whined.

"I don't have thumbs… Or fingers." Ash said, staring at the paws that he has now in place of hands.

Pikachu burst out laughing. "**Man, you really ARE turning into a pokémon, huh? Not even keeping those fancy opposable thumbs!**"

"PROFESSOR! PROFESSOR CAN YOU LET US IN?" Ash shouted.

Tracy beat Professor Oak to the door. "I got it Professor!" He called, and let Ash and Pikachu in. "Wow, you're really going all the way with this, huh?"

"Shut up Tracy…" Ash snapped, Pikachu still snickering on his shoulder.

"Oh my…" said Professor Oak from the top of the stairs, upon seeing Ash's new body. "I think we should run some more tests, and make sure you're still OK."

"I feel fine Professor. Besides, it **will always be me in here, right? Umm, why's everyone staring at me?**"

"Ash? Are you OK?"

"**YES I feel fine. Are you going to poke me with some more of those stupid needles or not?**"

"Ash, I'm afraid I can't understand you. You seem to have reverted to Pokéspeech."

"I'm not sure that reverted is the right word, Professor." Tracy said.

"**Um… I don't feel so good you guys…**" Ash said, and began to wobble on his feet.

"Ash, you don't look too good, maybe you should lie down." Tracy said.

"**I just said that!**" Ash whined.

"**Welcome to my world, Ash!**" Pikachu laughed.

"**It must be very annoying.**" Ash said, as Professor Oak and Tracy helped him onto the nearby couch, and then promptly fainted.

"_Ugh…_"

Everyone jumped at the telepathic presence in the room.

"_I don't feel so good. What happened?_" said the voice in everyone's head.

"**ASH! You're finally awake!**" Pikachu shouted, running up to his best friend. "**Wait, something's not right…**"

"_Ash is here?_" the voice said, and the Lucario's eyes snapped open. "_Wait, where is here exactly?_"

"Uh oh… I think we may have a bit of a problem here guys." Oak said, staring at the pokémon.

-End of Chapter 5-

So I didn't mess this up too badly did I? No I didn't use an OC yet, I figured it would be kinda hard to get rid of an OC brought in at this point in the story, so didn't bring one in. Thanks again for all the support you guys have given me. Thanks to Aleron's Sword for Beta-Reading, and whatnot.

I hope to write more soon. I can't believe how much I've already written, but the plot must go on. I refuse to let this become a dead story, especially since you all seem to be enjoying it.

Bye 'till next chapter!

-NanoCarp


	6. Sharing

It's that time again, time for another chapter of the story. Well, before I get started I wanted to again say thanks to Aleron's Sword for Beta-reading my story, as he has been doing. Also, I wanted to respond here to one of my reviews. Tannon, I don't quite understand what you mean about the plot moving suddenly, but that kind of stuff, it's just how I roll, the story feels, as you put it "on the spot" because guess what? I am making this up as I go along. It's my first story, and I have never been able to think much more than a half hour into the future with my ADHD, so be thankful that I manage to make the chapters connect to each other at all XD. Besides, I was running out of plot-fluff to make the changes stretch out more.

I'm kind of redoing my structuring for the story. I'm now introducing story Arcs for the overall plot. Check my profile for details, and continuos updates on my progress between chapters. I'm also going to be doing "episodes", starting after the Prologue Arc, which will range from 1 to 3 chapters long each. These will fit into arcs. I still haven't decided whether or not each arc will be it's own published story.

As I re-read the above statement just before saving and publishing the final draft, I have to ask myself: What the **** have I gotten myself into now? Then I answer: I have no idea, but it will keep my life interesting for sure.

ON WITH THE STORY!

**WARNING!** This chapter contains sudden and unmarked perspective shifts. This helps to keep the story more interesting and flow better, at the risk of confusing the reader. So in order to defuse that risk, I give you this heads-up.

* * *

><p>Arc 1: Prologue - Changes<p>

Chapter 6: Sharing

* * *

><p>"ASH! Come on, please don't tell me you've forgotten us!" May cried out, almost hysterically.<p>

"_I'm not Ash. And I do in fact remember you. You are that human, May I believe, that was traveling with Ash._" the lucario said telepathically. "_And that's Max, your younger brother. That man over there is Brock, another one of Ash's friends. But what are all you doing here and why do you think I'm Ash?_"

"I'm afraid that we can't quite be sure of what exactly is going on here for a while, Lucario." Professor Oak chimed in. "I will have to do some tests and in the mean time I will try to explain."

"OH! I can't hold back anymore!" Max shouted, leaping up and giving the surprised Lucario a big hug. "I thought you were gone for good!"

"_Umm. Thanks?_" Lucario responded, gently pushing Max off of him.

"Lucario, can you tell me the last thing you remember?" Oak asked.

"_The last thing I remember was saving the Tree of Beginning with Ash, and then sitting down next to where Sir Aaron rests. As for how I got here, I haven't a clue._"

"Hmm… very strange indeed." Oak mumbled.

"_Where IS Ash? I don't see him anywhere here, and I can't sense him either._"

"**Umm… That's going to be hard to explain…**" Pikachu said, "**You're kinda in what used to be Ash's body… I think.**"

"_WHAT?_"

"**Yeah, you see after we left the Tree of Beginning, Ash started changing. He grew fur, and fangs, and all that stuff until he got the body you have now. Then he fainted, and now you're awake in what was his body.**"

"_That doesn't make much sense…_"

"**Tell me about it. I can't make anymore sense of it than what I just told you!**"

"Well, from what I can tell," Oak said, cutting into Pikachu and Lucario's conversation, "This situation should be temporary. It looks like Ash's conscience and Lucario's may either trade off or simply share the body. I can't tell which will happen, but it should be one of those two."

"_Glad I'm not stealing Ash's life from him!_" Lucario said.

"The question is though," Brock cut in, "What will happen with Ash's body? Will it stay a Lucario's or return to Ash's?"

"I don't know for now. I need to look into the situation more before I can say for sure." Oak said.

"**How do you think this happened?**" Pikachu asked.

"_I have no ideas right now, but if I think of something, I'll let you know Pikachu._" Lucario answered.

"Um… What did Pikachu say Lucario? We can't understand pokéspeech you know." Max asked, poking Lucario's arm.

"_He was asking if I had any idea as to how this could have happened._"

"Oh…" Max said.

"Maybe it had something to do with the whole Aura thing?" suggested May.

"_That is a possibility. Although the specifics would be totally beyond me._" Lucario said. "_I think that I would like to meditate on this situation, if you don't mind._"

"No, no. Not at all." Oak said, a touch of disappointment in his voice.

Lucario got up and walked out of the room, leaving the others to ponder the current situation.

"So Professor, any theories?" asked Brock after a few minutes of silence.

"Hmmm… maybe. But I'll need to look into what exactly constitutes Aura first…"

* * *

><p>'<em>What? Where am I?<em>' thought Ash. All around him was nothing but darkness.

"Hello?" He called out. "Anybody there?"

"_ASH! There you are! I've been looking for you for a while._"

"Who are you? And where are you? Where am I for that matter?"

"_What? You don't remember me? I thought we had bonded a bit closer than that…_"

"Huh? Wait a sec, Lucario, is that you?"

"_Yes. As for where you are, I believe the correct term would be our mindscape._"

"OK, you lost me."

"_A mindscape is a visual representation of one's mind, and it's current state._"

"OK I think I get it… Wait, you said 'our'…"

"_Yes, it would appear that we are sharing a body now._"

"And I would be here because…"

"_Most likely because you just regained consciousness and because I am currently in control._"

All of a sudden, Ash felt light-headed, and a tingling sensation appeared briefly all over his body.

"HEY! I can't move!" Ash called out, his body was now in a meditative position, or so he assumed based on how it felt. Then he felt his body tense and sensed someone entering the room he was in. '_Wait, when did I get in a room?_' Ash heard the door open and felt his eye opening, upon which he could see Tracy sticking his head in the room.

"Whops, sorry Lucario. Did I disturb you?" he said.

"_Yes, you did. But I have finished what I wanted to do._" Ash heard Lucario respond.

"And that would be?"

"_Finding Ash._" Lucario responded as if the answer was obvious.

"WHAT?" Tracy all but screamed.

Lucario sighed and then went on to explain, "_Not physically of course, but mentally._"

"You still lost me."

"_His consciousness is still within this body. I was meditating to try and find it so he can return to the surface._"

"Cool! Tell him I said hi!"

"_He can hear you, I think, but he has yet to regain any form of control._"

"Well THAT explains a lot!" Ash said, "I do have to say, this is a really weird experience, but at least I know what's going on now."

Lucario chuckled.

"What's so funny Lucario?" asked Tracy, confused at the current state of things.

"_Nothing, just Ash being a bit slow to pick up the obvious. As usual._" Lucario said.

"I HEARD THAT!" Ash yelled.

"_I know that. That's why I said it._" Lucario said in a teasing tone.

"You sound like Misty." Ash complained.

Lucario got up and decided to rejoin the others, who were now eating dinner.

"What's up Lucario?" asked Brock.

"_I found Ash…_" Lucario said.

"Really? He's ok? That's great!" Max said.

"Calm down Max!" May scolded.

"_Relax May, he's fine. And yes Max, Ash is fine. And he says that he appreciates that you all are worried about him._" Lucario said.

"Wait, WHAT?" shouted May.

"_He can hear everything you say._" said Lucario.

"Care to elaborate, Lucario?" asked Brock, "Oh, and would you like a sandwich or some Pokéfood?"

"_Pokéfood. And Ash's consciousness is, although separate from me, here in this body. He right now can see, hear, and feel everything I can._" Lucario answered. "_But he doesn't have any control as of yet._"

"**I can't tell, are you disappointed, or happy to give Ash control back?**" Pikachu asked.

"_Mostly happy. Not that I'm happy to give up control, mostly that I'm happy to let Ash live his life again… Well, as much as he can with this whole situation._"

"Huh… I guess that would make sense…" May said, inferring Pikachu's question.

A few minutes later Brock brought in dinner, placing a dish of Pokéfood in front of Lucario.

"There is no way you are putting THAT in my mouth!" Ash yelled inside his and Lucario's head.

"_First off, it's OUR mouth,_" Lucario retorted, "_And secondly, I will eat what I like to eat. Who knows, maybe you'll even discover that you like the taste of the Pokéfood, with the fact that you are in a Lucario body._"

Lucario reached down and picked up a piece of the Pokéfood and went to put it in his mouth.

"**NO! I WILL NOT EAT IT!**" Roared the Lucario, flinging the food away from himself.

"**What's wrong Lucario? Not like Brock's cooking?**" Pikachu asked, a puzzled look on his muzzle.

"**You know I like Brock's cooking, Pikachu, I just don't like Pokéfood! I mean I am - **" The Lucario stopped and began to take deep breaths, as if calming himself down.

"**Hello? Earth to Lucario?**"

"**What is it Lucario? I'm trying to talk to Pikachu here!**"

"**Wait, something isn't adding up here…**" Pikachu realized.

"**What do you mean I'm in control? I'm just talking… with Pikachu…**" The Lucario proceeded to say, ignoring Pikachu and promptly slapped himself in the forehead.

"**Ash? Is that you talking?**"

"**Yes, yes it is…**"

"**And who were you talking to, because that conversation was definitely NOT with me.**"

"**Lucario…**"

"**That makes sense… I think.**"

"_Why shouldn't it make sense, Pikachu?_" a voice commented in their heads, causing both to jump.

"**Lucario! Don't scare me like that!**" Pikachu said angrily.

"_It's not my fault if you let your guard down._"

"**Wait, why can you still talk?**" Ash asked.

"_Because I use telepathy._" Lucario said matter-of-factly.

"**Then I suggest I get to keep control of the mouth. That way we can both talk.**" Ash said.

"_That won't be a problem if you learn telepathy._"

"**Besides,**" added Pikachu, "**you can't talk to the others with a lucario mouth.**"

"_Good point Pikachu. I don't feel like translating constantly._"

"Well can you do it for me this once?" May cut in, "I hate being out of the loop." Lucario chuckled telepathically and relayed the conversation to the group of humans. As Lucario did this, Ash used their body to go and get a sandwich from Brock, which he promptly ate.

"**Lucario?**" Ash said.

"_Finally, a statement I don't have to translate!_" Lucario teased. Everyone but Ash laughed.

"**Seriously though. Do you think we could go see if you can help learn to use some of our powers?**"

"_So NOW it's our body?_" Lucario teased.

"**Oh come on Lucario!**"

"_Oh, calm down, I'm just teasing you!_"

"Am I missing something here?" asked Max.

"_Telepathy doesn't have to be broadcast to everyone around Max._" Lucario answered, and Max rolled his eyes.

* * *

><p>END CHAPTER 6<p>

The start date for this chapter was unrecorded.

This chapter was finished on June 30th, 2011.

Well. That's finally done. Almost a whole month huh… Shows what happens with a combination of writer's block, a job, nagging parents, and plain old laziness get in the way. This part of the story should be done in one or two more chapters. I can't promise a lot (or any really) action, but the plot must go on, and all that jazz. Wow, two clichés in one sentence. Anyways, I hope to start the next chapter soon, as my other plot bunny I mentioned is kinda starting to bite, really hard. (For those of you who don't know, that means that the idea has developed in my head to a point where it's hard to focus on other stories.)

Again, for progress updates as they happen (or as they don't happen, if I get lazy again) check my profile's mini-blog. You know, I should probably start clearing old entries. Or maybe I'll move it to my actual blog… Great, more decisions for me to make…

By the way- If you didn't figure it out, underlined text is only heard by Ash/Lucario.


	7. Training

Hello… It's been a long time hasn't it? What, almost 2 months now? Well, I'm finally finishing this story. Now, hopefully I'll eventually get my butt in gear and write a sequel, but don't expect it ANYTIME soon. I have another story I'm working on right now called Pure Chaos and as well I have a few other ideas I'm tossing around in my head.

However I won't bore you with them here, I'll just say this: if you want to know more, you can visit my blog, (yes, I decided get rid of the mini-blog,) at thewannabewriters*blogspot*com. Replace * with periods, or just go to my profile for a link. As well as being my personal blog, I'm also using it to keep you all up to date with chapter progress. But guess what? It's not just for me now. I let other authors use it for the same purpose as well. There is also a catalogue of all our stories on the site. Well, check it out when you get the chance (Please and thank you) and maybe even join up with us, details on joining can be found at the website.

Oh, and sorry if this chapter is a bit short, really, I'm just tying up loose ends and some minor setup for the next story, since I really don't have any plot in mind whatsoever beyond this story. Something I have come to regret.

"_Okay Ash, Listen up. The majority of my fighting style is based on Martial Arts. Some moves are used in the same manner as weapons that you commonly see used these fighting styles. For example, I generally wield the move Bone Rush, much as a martial artist would use a bow-staff. Obviously Bone Rush is much more powerful than a simple staff made of wood, but you get the idea._" To illustrate his point, Lucario took control of the body and brought his paws together. He then pulled them apart in a straight line from one another, parallel to the ground. As his paws separated, a bone formed in his paws. Lucario stopped separating his paws and the bone finished forming. It was now longer than Lucario was tall. He then began to spin the bone in front of himself, and made several swings in front of him. He focused for a moment and the bone disappeared.

"You want ME to do THAT_?_" Ash gasped in shock over their telepathic link.

Lucario laughed. "_Eventually, yes, but for now, we'll start with something a bit more basic._"

"Okay, like what?"

"_Let's start with an Aura Sphere. First we'll work on generating the attacks. Then, once you can produce any of them at will, we can work on wielding them like weapons._"

"I can do that!" Ash said, and began to focus on the palms of their paws. A small orb of aura appeared and which Ash then focused on instead. The orb grew slightly and Ash threw it at a nearby tree.

"_Okay, not great, but okay. It was a good first attempt._" Lucario said.

"Just okay?"

"_How to put it… You didn't focus on your aura enough. You were focusing on the attack, and not the power of aura. This attack comes from aura, so you need to focus on drawing on your aura more than creating the attack. The Aura Sphere will come naturally once you draw out our aura._" Lucario explained.

"Okay, let me try again…" Ash gained a look of concentration and suddenly a large Aura Sphere appeared in his paws.

"_Amazing…_"

"What?" Ash asked and lost focus, the Aura Sphere dissipating.

"_That was a larger Aura Sphere than I have ever produced. Hold on a moment._" Lucario took control of the body. He then generated an even larger Aura Sphere. "_Yes… I see. Our auras have merged with one another, strengthening each other. Keep in mind though Ash, that size and aura strength are not the only factors that determine power by a long shot. The bigger the orb, the more powerful, yes, but the attack moves slower with a larger sphere. The key is simply to train and you will deal more damage with the same sized sphere. Then you can either throw smaller speedy spheres that pack a big punch, or a normal sized and speed sphere that will deal an absolutely massive amount of damage._"

"Ok, I get that. A trade off between power and speed. Like Pikachu versus Raichu."

"_Exactly_" Lucario nodded, still in control of the body. "_Now let's move on to some other attacks. First let's see what level we are._"

"Ok." Ash took control again an ran inside and got his pokédex. He pointed it at himself and hit the scan button.

"Lucario, Level 19," reported the robotic voice of the pokédex. "Moves Known: Aura Sphere, Tackle, Dark Pulse, Detect, Foresight, Quick Attack, Counter, Metal Claw, Force Palm, Feint, Bone Rush."

"**I wonder… **Hey, Lucario, switch control and push the button…" Lucario took control and hit the scan button again.

"Lucario, Level 73, Moves Known: Aura Sphere, Tackle, Detect, Foresight, Quick Attack, Counter, Metal Claw, Force Palm, Feint, Bone Rush, Calm Mind, Dragon Pulse, Extremespeed."

"Hey, it does treat us both as separate pokémon." Ash said.

"_Hmmm… I didn't know I knew Dragon Pulse._" Lucario said.

"Just because a pokémon knows a move, doesn't mean it knows how to use it. The pokédex's definition of knowing a move is that the pokémon is capable of using it, not that it knows how to use it. It's kind of annoying, that's why I don't use the scan feature much."

"_I can see that. Well, shall we get back to training you now?_"

"Let's do this!" Ash said and ran them both back outside.

"_Okay, let's start with Metal Claw._"

"What about Detect and Counter?"

"_Believe it or not, those moves are really kind of instinct. You don't really use them so much as they just happen. Except when a trainer orders you to use it. Even then, it still just happens. You don't really have to summon up any special power.__ Pikachu! Can you come here for a minute?_"

"**What's up guys?**" Pikachu asked as he scrambled up.

"_Pikachu, please use Iron Tail on Ash here… For training._"

"**Um… okay.**" Pikachu's tail began to glow and he charged towards Ash.

"_Ash use counter._" Lucario told Ash.

Pikachu jumped up and swung his tail around at Ash. Ash put up a paw and blocked the move, and promptly punched Pikachu away with his free paw.

"**Um… What just happened guys?**" Ash asked.

"_Counter happened. Thank you Pikachu._" Lucario chuckled.

"**So you just wanted me so Ash could punch me?**" Pikachu asked, slightly annoyed.

"_I guess you could put it like that. More so that Ash didn't quite seem to believe me that Counter was a move based on instinct._"

"**Aren't most moves?**"

"_When you're a natural born pokémon, generally, yes. But since Ash here wasn't born a pokémon, we have to teach him to use the moves he already 'knows'._"

"**Um… ok, that makes sense I guess. Well, I'll leave you two to it then.**" Pikachu said and walked off.

After a few more hours of practice, Ash was fully able to produce just about every move that the pokédex had listed.

"_Don't worry too much about it, Ash._" Lucario told him, "_I can't help you use Dark Pulse. I can't use it. It's just one of those moves that you are either born with or you're not._"

Ash was, needless to say, disappointed, but he was tired, so they both decided to call it a day. "**Woah, it's that late already?**" Ash said. "**Let's just grab some dinner real quick and then I'm going to bed.**"

They did just that.

Misty started pounding on the door to Ash's room. "GET UP LAZY BONES!" Misty heard some mumbling from the room.

"_Ash says he's not ready to get up._" Lucario relayed telepathically.

Misty jumped. "Lucario. You startled me. Just get Ash up out of bed please. Either take control or tell him breakfast is - "

The door swung open. "OH MY ARCEUS! ASH!"

"What?" asked Ash, completely awake at the mention of food.

"One, you're back in your body. Two, PUT SOME CLOTHES ON!" Misty yelled.

"What?" Ash balked. He looked at himself. He was human again! Then he realized: HE WAS NAKED! And in front of Misty too! He quickly shut the door. Misty could hear him mumble from the other side of the door, "What a great way to start the day. Naked in front of one of my best friends."

"Professor!" Ash called, running into the room.

"Yes, Ash?" Oak asked, not turning around. "Wait. Ash?" He froze. Ash couldn't speak human right now, right? Professor Oak slowly turned around to see Ash, although not quite dressed as normal. Most of his clothes were simply replacements of the ones destroyed by the first transformation. But there were obviously some changes to his wardrobe. Instead of a T-shirt under his jacket, he was wearing a button up shirt.

"Ash! You're back in your body!"

"Yes, I just woke up like this." Ash answered.

"Is Lucario still there?" Oak asked.

"_Present and accounted for._" Said the aura pokémon.

"Okay. So what's up with the new clothes?"

"Oh. Lucario suggested that we pick clothes that wouldn't be destroyed totally if I change again. The buttons let the chest spike emerge without tearing the shirt."

"What about the other changes? Like the ears?"

"Umm…"

"_We haven't figured that out yet._" Lucario answered for Ash.

END CHAPTER.

END STORY.

So, where do we go from here? Who knows. Not me. Yeah, eventually Ash, Lucario, and company will be due for another adventure. I'm just not gonna start writing it until I figure out a plot and stuff. If you have any ideas or suggestions please feel free to let me know.

It's kind of sad to be finishing up the story. But at the same time, it feels good. It's a bittersweet moment you know? Hopefully, I'll have a decent plot figured out for you all for the sequel.

THANKS FOR READING!

-Don't suffer from insanity, enjoy it.

-NanoCarp


	8. NOTICE

First off, this is **NOT** a chapter. This is a notice about the future of this story. I've gotten a couple PMs, Comments/Reviews, and even messages on other websites about this story, and its potential sequel. This "Chapter" is here to explain what is going on and the future of this story.

* * *

><p>Not too long ago, I read over this story. Then I realized something. I can't help but feel like this story sucked. Now, as my first attempt at any sort of writing like this, I didn't expect much else, but... I don't feel like I can even use this as a launching off point for another story anymore. Looking through the reviews, or comments or whatever they're called now, I can't help but agree with some of the reviews that I initially shrugged off and ignored. I got antsy, I rushed it. And honestly? I feel like I could have done so much better. So, I will. Instead of writing this sequel that everyone wants, I will be re-writing this story completely.<p>

**Stop. Don't panic.** I know there are those of you out there who loved this story and think it's the best thing since sliced bread. So, to respect those people, and so I have a point of comparison to look back on, I will not be removing or overwriting this version of the story. The name will change, and the description will change, as well as a note that will be added before the first chapter. Other than that, the story will remain.

I will be posting it here and on my DeviantArt account when I begin writing it. However, I have a list of other things I need to do first. Included on this list is a paid piece of work on DeviantArt, and my other main story in progress, Pure Chaos, will come first. I hope to be able to update multiple stories at once, but I will make no promises to the constancy and timeliness of my updates, as always.

Before I go, I would like to thank everyone for their continued support of my writing, both on this story and others. Especially the members of my group, The Wannabe Writers. I couldn't have done this without each and every one of you.


End file.
